THEPOPEWANTSthe traditional Latin Mass offered in every Catholic parish in the world, a Vatican cardinal has said. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos also told journalists in London that seminarians everywhere should be trained to say Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, also called the Tridentine rite. Cardinal Castrillon made the comments last Saturday, shortly before he became the first cardinal to celebrate the older High Mass in Westminster Cathedral for 39 years. When asked by The Catholic Heraldif the Pope wanted to see many ordinary parishes making provision for the traditional form, the cardinal said: “All the parishes. Not many –all the parishes, because this is a gift of God. He [the Pope] offers these riches, and it is very important for new generations to know the past of the Church. This kind of worship is so noble, so beautiful –the deepest theologians’ way to express our faith. “The worship, the music, the architecture, the painting, make a whole that is a treasure. The Holy Father is willing to offer to all the people this possibility, not only for the few groups who demand it but so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church.” Cardinal Castrillon, president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, which is responsible for overseeing the application of Summorum Pontificum, the papal decree authorising the universal use of the tradi

Cardinal Castrillon celebrates Mass in the extraordinary form at Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of England and Wales Photo: LMS

tional rite, said it was “absolute ignorance” to think that the Pope was trying to reverse the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s by encouraging such worship. “The Fathers of the Council never celebrated a Mass other than the Gregorian [traditional] one. It

[the Novus Ordo] came after the Council,” he said. “The Holy Father, who is a theologian and who was in the preparation for the Council, is acting exactly in the way of the Council, offering with freedom the different kinds of celebration.” He added: “The Holy Father is not returning to the

past; he is taking a treasure from the past to offer it alongside the rich celebration of the new rite.” He also said that Ecclesia Dei was writing to seminaries to ask that trainee priests are taught to understand the theology, philosophy and language of the Masses. The cardinal said parishes

should teach worshippers to “appreciate the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priests represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest”. In Summorum Pontificum, the Pope stated that

Tridentine Masses should be made available in every parish where groups of the faithful desire it. He also said any priest could freely celebrate the Mass. He did not require all parishes to establish a Tridentine Mass schedule, but said that where “a group of faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradi

tion exists stably” the priest should “willingly accede” to their request to make the Mass available. Cardinal Castrillon, visiting London at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society (LMS), said that a stable group could mean just three or four people not necessarily from the same parish. His remarks have inflamed an already intense debate over the reintroduction of a form of worship widely suppressed for almost 40 years. In that time it has been a source of division in the Church. Some Catholics were so outraged that they formed schismatic traditional communities outside the Church. For others, the older Mass summed up all that was wrong with the pre-conciliar Church. When Pope Benedict liberated the older Mass in July last year, many commentators argued that his main intention was to bring traditionalists back into the fold. But Cardinal Castrillon’s comments imply that Benedict XVI wishes the old rite to be celebrated regularly in all churches so that it might enrich the celebration of Novus Ordo Masses and help to eradicate liturgical abuses. Cardinal Castrillion, speaking to the LMS later, explained the broader practical applications of the Motu Proprio. He emphasised that the document had established a new “juridical reality”. While the re-introduction of the extraordinary from “must be done in harmony with both ecclesiastical law and ecclesiastical superiors” those superiors “must also recognise that these rights are

now firmly established by the law of the Church by the Vicar of Christ himself”, he said. Priests and bishops, he said, “must do all that they can to provide this great liturgical treasure of the Church’s tradition for the faithful”. The most pressing task, Cardinal Castrillion said, is to help those faithful who wanted Mass celebrated in the extraordinary form to avail themselves of the rights granted by the Motu Proprio “where it is most desired by the faithful and where their ‘legitimate aspirations’ have not yet been met”. He continued: “On the one hand no priest should be forced to celebrate according to the extraordinary form against his will. On the other hand those priests who do not wish to celebrate according to the 1962 Roman Missal should be generous in meeting the requests of the faithful who desire it.” In a passage clearly directed at bishops, the cardinal said two practical short-term provisions needed to be made. First, there needed to be a “centrally located church, convenient to the greatest number of faithful” where the “parish priest is willing to welcome these faithful from his own and surrounding parishes”. Second, that “it is crucial that there be priests willing to celebrate according to the 1962 Roman Missal” in order to “provide this important pastoral service on a weekly Sunday basis”. He said that it was “particularly sad” when priests are Continued on Page 2

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Dan Brown film crew barred from churches

Footballer’s £5m wedding is ‘invalid’

BYNICKPISAINROME

CATHOLIC officials have refused to allow filming in two churches featured in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons –the predecessor to his controversial bestseller The Da Vinci Code. Camera crews have been in Rome for two weeks for filming on location along with Hollywood star Tom Hanks, who played Professor Robert Langdon in 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code. Director Ron Howard, who also made The Da Vinci Code, had wanted to follow the plot of Angels and Demons and film in the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. But the Diocese of Rome

refused permission claiming the film was “nothing but fantasy’’ –the same accusation it had made against The Da Vinci Code. The Vatican was so incensed by The Da Vinci Code that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, urged people not to read it and said it was a “sackful of lies”. He said the book –which said Jesus married St Mary Magdalene and had a child with her –was an “insult to the Christian faith’’ and was “shameful and unfounded”. The snub is seen as a direct attack on the makers of both films. Fr Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the Rome dioceses, said: “We regularly allow film-makers to use our

churches for productions. “We do so especially to those whose films have a compatibility with religious sentiment but not to those who wish to film fantasy or damage common religious sentiment as did The Da Vinci Code.’’ The refusal has meant that filming will have to move south to Caserta and take place at the city’s Royal Palace, a 250-year-old complex which was also used in Star Wars and Mission Impossible. In Angels and Demons, which is due out next year, Hanks again takes on a mystery society, the Illuminati, as they murder four cardinals during a Conclave to elect a new Pope.

Cardinal Pell launches Youth Day networking site

BYSTAFFREPORTER

AUSTRALIAN CARDINAL George Pell and Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony

Fisher, the World Youth Day coordinator, have launched the first exclusive World Youth Day social networking website to connect pilgrims around the globe. The website — www.Xt3.com — was launched in Sydney with 100 young people whom Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher invited to be their online friends. Bishop Fisher said the

website’s name stands for “Christ in the Third Millennium”, and is inspired by Pope John Paul II who spoke of young people’s special task to bring the message of Christ to the world. “It is hoped that Xt3 users will continue to connect after World Youth Day in July, to build upon friendships made and continue dialogue about what it means to be a young person of faith,” he said.

THE WEDDING of Wayne Rooney and Colleen McLoughlin cost £5 million and hogged the headlines of the world’s newspapers for days. But if they want a valid Catholic ceremony they will have to go through the whole thing again, according to an Italian priest in the Archdiocese of Genoa. The couple, both 22, held the wedding ceremony at La Cervara, a converted monastery near Genoa, even though the diocese warned them against the plan. The bishop’s office told the Rooneys that Le Cervara was not suitable for a wedding because it was deconsecrated, and suggested a different church a few miles away. But the couple apparently ignored the advice and Fr Edward Quinn, an Oblate priest based at Croxteth in Birkenhead, presided over the ceremony. Fr Mario Ostigoni, the priest in charge of the marriage office, said: “If the marriage was celebrated at La Cervara, then it is invalid in the eyes of the Church, ipso facto.” He added: “The bishop did not give his permission, so it was not a wedding. Even a prayer or blessing would be considered very inappropriate.” The couple’s spokesman said: “They are definitely married, legally and in the eyes of the Church.”

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